5 Ways to Keep Kids Safe at the Pool this Summer

O Negative Blood Type

If you have an O negative blood type, you may have considered donating blood. You may be unaware, but O negative is somewhat rare compared to the other blood groups and is considered a universal donor. For those of you considering a blood donation, all of our NC and AZ locations have on-site labs where we can make determine your blood type.

O Negative, Where Art Thou?

Each year, about 5 million Americans need blood transfusions for a variety of reasons. Because there is a variety of blood types, it is important that people receive a compatible blood type in these emergency situations. If a patient is given the wrong blood type, antibodies will try to destroy the invading blood cells.

There are four main groups of blood: A, B, AB, and O. Some people have an additional marker in their blood called the Rh factor. Because each of the four main blood groups may or may not have Rh factor, blood is further classified as "positive" or "negative." This brings the total to 8 blood types.

O negative

O positive

A negative

A positive

B negative

B positive

AB negative

AB positive

O negative is considered the “universal donor” blood group, meaning anyone from any blood group can receive O negative blood. On the other hand, AB is considered the “universal recipient” blood group because those with AB positive can receive blood from anyone.

If you would like to find out your blood type, come to FastMed. We will have you in the door, tested, and back home in no time. If you want to learn how or where you can give blood, FastMed can help with that, too. We frequently host blood drives at our clinics and can provide you with information on when the next one will be.

The content presented on this page is not intended to diagnose health problems or take the place of professional medical care.

FastMed’s services address a wide spectrum of urgent care and family medicine needs. In addition to providing immediate walk-in attention for an injury or illness, FastMed provides routine services including flu shots, occupational medicine and school or sports physicals. Urgent care locations are in Arizona, North Carolina and Texas.
FastMed clinics hold the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for accreditation in compliance with the Joint Commission’s national standards for health care quality and safety in ambulatory health care.
We have put in one place the various policies that are important for our patients to understand. Here you can find FastMed's Notice of Non-Discrimination, Notice of Privacy Practices, Privacy Policy, Equal Opportunity Employer Statement and FastMed.com's Terms of Use.